 WHEN MIGHTY OAKS ARE FELLED

          DR. WILLIAM D. BROWN, 33
        1025 Connecticut Avenue N.W.,
Suite 217, Washington, D.C. 20036


 
  WHAT SILENCE  ENGULFS  US when  mighty oaks  are felled in our
midst, whether from accident, or following shortor long-term
illnesses!  We look for the deceased in all the old familiar
places, picturing them in their former surroundings especially when
we are far removed, all of which makes it doubly difficult to
accept the reality that a mighty oak has fallen in our midst, never
again to be raised in this forest.

  What was it Jefferson said when  presented in France as the new
American envoy following Brother   Benjamin   Franklin? Greeted,
"So   you   are  Dr. Franklin's replacement," Jefferson
responded, "I come not to replace but to succeed him.  No one can
replace Dr. Franklin."

  True enough.  No one ever replaces another, though there is
always need for successors. Where do we look for those to fill
these voids?  Why among the sturdy saplings that have long labored
in the protective shade cast by these once mighty but now fallen
oaks, that's where!

  How fortunate when a felled mighty oak has done all within his
power to nurture and encourage young saplings who must someday rise
to the task.  Who among us hasn't known such mighty oaks within the
Craft?  Perhaps such a staunch oak once stood in the East as Master
of your lodge.  In addition, he may have been an active
churchman, a Scottish or York Rite Mason, a member of the Grotto.
Perhaps he was a Shriner who throughout his life instilled the
undying principles of Freemasonry in everyone he contacted, whether
in his home, his lodge, or his church. Then there were the posi-
tive influences he brought to Masonry through his participation
in civic groups within the community where he took an active role
in his city's political life.

   Oh, you know these oaks of whom we write, those whose earthly
absences leave us feeling a little poorer, as if a particular
bright and illuminating star has been extinguished up there in the
darkened canopy of heaven.  Such Masons have existed in every
community with our having been made better and left richer by their
presences.  Masons in every valley can attest to this.

   Presently we who reside in the Orient of Virginia are most
acutely aware of such with the passage from life to life of a
former Grand Master, Edward Herman Cann, Sr., 33.  One of those
rare men whose Masonic career spanned more than 50 years, he served
as Master of Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4, AF&AM, which was
President George Washington's mother lodge, and held about every
Masonic position imaginable, culminating in his election in 1962
as Most Worshipful Grand Master of Masons in Virginia.  In 1981 the
Grand Lodge Chartered the Edward H. Cann Daylight Lodge No. 1752
AF&AM in Fredericksburg, where Brother Cann presided in the
East in 1982 as Worshipful Mastera half century after having
served as Worshipful Master of Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4.

  Nor were his interests limited to the Fraternity.  He was an
elder in The Fredericksburg Presbyterian Church, where he also
served as Church Clerk for many years.  An astute politician, he
was a city Councilman for many years, was elected its President by
his peers, and finally elected by the citizenry as Mayor of
Fredericksburg. Through all these endeavors he never neglected his
lodge.  You could always count on Ed's bright and cheerful greeting
in the lodge room, where he went out of his way to epitomize the
essence of the rising sun bringing light into any dark recesses of
spirit that a lodge member or visiting Brother might be experi-
encing.

   When such a mighty oak is felled in our midst, what are we to
think? Rather than our dwelling on musings of doom and gloom, it
would be most profitable if we were to weigh three thoughts.

   First, we might recall the words of William Penn who wrote:
"They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it.  Death
cannot kill what never dies, nor can spirits ever be divided that
love and live in the same divine principle."  Whatever greatness
mighty oaks have experienced in this world, they will surpass in
the next.

  Second, it is comforting to consider the wisdom of Thomas
Campbell, who reminded us that "to live in hearts we leave behind,
is not to die."  For indeed when we think about it, here is but
additional proof that in taking our leave of this world we come not
to the finish line but rather to the starting line.

  Finally, we would do well to recall when reflecting on the
felling of mighty oaks in our midst that "good timber does not grow
in ease; the stronger the wind, the tougher the trees." Then it
is that as Scottish Rite Freemasons we glance at that plain gold
band received by each of us after the conferring of the Fourteenth
Degree, the ring which has imposed upon it the equilateral
triangle containing the Hebrew letter YOD. In removing the ring,
how reassuring to read inscribed on the inside the Latin Phrase:
"Virtus junxit, mors non separabit," i.e., "Whom virtue unites,
death cannot separate."

   And so it is with these once mighty oaks in our midst with whom
we will fellowship yet again in due time in that house not built
with hands, eternal in the heavens.




William D. Brown, 33, is a member of Spurmont Lodge No. 98 (VA),
the Scottish Rite Valley of Wash., D.C., and ACCA Temple. A
Clinical Psychologist and author, he speaks and consults widely
on corporate stress and ethics.


WAGES OF A MASON

   Masonic labor is purely a labor of love. He who seeks to draw
Masonic wages in gold or silver will be disappointed. The wages of
a Mason are earned and paid in their dealings with one another,
sympathy begets sympathy, kindness begets kindness, helpfulness
begets helpfulness, and these are the wages of a Mason.


                          Benjamin Franklin

